Budae Jjigae (Army Stew)

Budae Jjigae literally means army stew.  It's originated during the Korean War, soon after the war, food was scarce and they made this dish by combining the surplus food like Spam, hot dogs and baked beans from the US Army facilities with other ingredients where available.  It's still very popular in Korea and in modern days, more ingredients are added which include instant noodles, ground beef/pork, tteok (Korean rice cake), mushrooms, sliced cheese, tofu, kimchi and etc.  Once I tasted this stew, I already fall in love with it.  I like the spicy and sourish taste and the idea of adding instant noodle in the stew is brilliant!  It matched and it's really delicious!  If you like Tom Yam Kung (Thai food) or Laksa (Malaysia food), you may like this dish too~ Enjoy!

 

 

Serving size: 3-4 person

Ingredients:

Spam                                                              1/2 can

Hot dog                                                           2

Ground Pork (or beef)                                    80g

Tteok (Korean rice cake)                                16 pieces

Baked Beans                                                   2 tbsp

Tofu (200g)                                                    1 pack

Onion (medium)                                             1/2

Well fermented kimchi                                   1/4 cup

Sliced Cheese (optional)                                 1

Instant noodle                                                 1 pack

Leek                                                                For garnish

Green chilli                                                     For garnish

 

Broth:

Dried anchovy                                                 10 piece

Kelp (4cm x 4cm)                                            5 piece                                                  

Water                                                               6 cup

 

Sauce:

Gochujang (Korean Pepper Paste)                  2 tbsp

Gochugaru (Korean Pepper Powder)              1 tsp

Minced garlic                                                  1 tbsp

Soy sauce                                                        1 tbsp

Kimchi juice (optional)                                   2 tbsp

 

Step by step photos:

 

 

1. Prepare the broth by adding the dried anchovies and kelps in water.  Boil for 15-20 minutes over medium heat.
2. While the broth is boiling, prepare sauce by mixing gochujang, gochukaru, minced garlic, soy sauce and *kimchi juice.
3. Wash and soak the tteok (rice cake) in water for 5 minutes and cut the kimchi into bite size.
4. Prepare a pot, sliced the spam, hot dog, tofu and onion and place them into the pot.
5. Add the soaked rice cake, minced pork, baked beans and cut kimchi into the same pot.
6. Add the broth that was prepared earlier to the pot and add in the sauce in the middle of the pot.
7. On the fire on medium heat and once it starts to boil, stir-in the sauce into the broth and try to stir the minced pork a little bit so that it won't cook into chunk.
8. Keep boiling on medium heat.  After 10 minutes, add in the noodle and some sliced green chillis and leek.
9. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the noodle is cooked.  Add in a **sliced cheese. Let the cheese melt and serve~

• * Kimchi juice - I added kimchi juice in this recipe because I like how the juice helps to enhance the broth flavor. However, it's optional :)
• ** Sliced cheese - I find that sliced cheese not only added a little bit of saltiness in this stew but it also helps to reduce the spiciness of the stew.  If you like your army stew a little less spicy, you can try adding a piece of sliced cheese ^^